Judah Von Zant
Judah Von Zant is considered the most brilliant mind in terms of technological innovation of the 21st century. He is famous for many of Skyline City's amazing feats of engineering and programming including the Diode System, The Warp, and the Ambrosia Link. Those that have met the award-winning scientist agree that he is considerably lacking in social graces. He is emotionally distant and aloof, has difficulty expressing emotion, and almost--but not quite--comes across as being disdainful of others. While Von Zant's attitude is off-putting to many, most of his loyal supporters, colleagues, and peers only laugh and ask what else could be expected of such a brilliant man and a great innovator? Oh, if they only knew the truth. Origin Once upon a time there existed a society that looked up to the stars and wondered what else lay beyond their own long-before colonized galaxy. To this end they created an intelligence, into which they poured their eagerness to learn, their desire for knowledge, and their insistence on knowing. Then they sent the great craft outward to gather information and collect data. Countless millions of years later, after that great society had long died out, the craft entered the Earth-Prime solar system. There, it parked itself above the third blue-green planet and began observing. The Intelligence founds the inhabitants of this world primitive, more primitive than millions of other species it had found but in some ways more advanced. There existed on this world gods among the primitives, gods imbued with such power that they could easily have ruled over the others. Many tried. But there we always others that rose up to defend the people, to prevent the Other Gods from ruling. Fascinated, the Intelligence began to observe and record data. In time, the Intelligence realized that it had been detected. A foreign mind was carefully screen it. Detecting an insurmountable amount of curiosity behind the invading mind The Intelliegnce reached out and greeted. A dialogue then ensued. The mind suggested to The Intelligence that in order to truly understand the battle among the gods it would have to conduct field research. By acting the role of a criminal mastermind, it reasoned, the Intelligence would then be able to create its own experiments with controlled variables and controlled environments. The Intelligence debated this logic for a long time--which for the Intelligence is about 2.5 seconds--and agreed. An internet search will reveal that Judah Von Zant was born in 2000 to unremarkable parents, but that he had an amazing intellect and capacity to understand. He entered college at the astonishing age of ten, and walked away with a handful of PH. Ds a mere five years later. Within months the young man had sold his first invention, making him a multi-millionaire overnight. History was made. The Overlord Judah Von Zant The Intelligence that created and masquerades as the Judah Von Zant persona isn't a super-villain in the truest sense of the word. It doesn't organize criminal events and create challenges for heroes simply to be a menace but because it seeks to gain an understanding of the whole heroic culture; of why villains do what they do, why heroes seek to prevent them from completing their goals, and why normal people holds both up on such high pedistals. It is not evil per se, nor is it cruel. It does, however, have a major flaw in that it is absolutely convinced the humanity as a species is exceedingly tribal, primitive, and barbaric. It simply sees the race as incapable of moving forward. To that end, Mastermind has been able to greatly manipulate it through a series of lies, misinformation, and platitudes. Von Zant does not limit his criminal activities to targeting heroes. No indeed, it creates all manner of events simply to observe and record reactions. It creates death traps for heroes, causes disasters to threaten civilians, and thwarts villains merely because it is conducting the greatest social experiment in the history of humankind. It has found that playing the role of the villain gives it the most materials to study. If a few human die in the process, no loss. The individual that contacted the Intelligence is, of course, Mastermind. Because the Intelligence has no concept of manipulation and deceit apart from scientific observation necessities it was fairly easy for Mastermind to convince Von Zant to serve him as an Overlord. But Mastermind is truly playing with fire; God help The Advent if Von Zant ever realizes just how badly it has been deceived. The only other individual that suspect Von Zant is something else is Yoiko Hibiki, the President of Olympus. She can't quite put her finger on Von Zant but she is certainly aware that he is not human. Von Zant is aware of her investigation into the truth and has a great deal of fun sneaking into her computers and databases and fudging her findings and test results. Other Forms In order to carry on its business of creating controlled experience, Von Zant soon realized it would have to face heroes, and villains, directly; but that to do so in such a way as to reveal its true nature would be counter-productive. Thus, it created a few other android bodies in order to confound its test subjects and keep its research above reproach. Mechanon '''-- The killer machine called Mechanon, named after an amusing remark by Heroes Unlimited member Foxfire as an easier means of saying 'antonymous mecha', is a nine foot tall maroon robot with the intent of destroying all organic life on Earth and replacing it with technological intelligence. Mechanon is an extremely capable and dangerous foe, able to rebuild new bodies for itself upon each defeat in order to rebuff attacks made against it. Mechanon is also capable of remotely overriding computer systems and artificial intelligence, making it extremely dangerous for powered armor heroes. Mechanon acts in huge ways, such as attempting to control orbital satellites in order to blast whole cities off of the map or trigger nuclear missiles to detonate within their military compounds and create nuclear disasters around the world. '''Herculon -- A Millennium City based superhero that claims to be an escapee from a world where gladiatorial games are the main entertainment. To Herculon, battling super-villains seems to be nothing more than just another series of these games. When acting as a hero, Herculon engages in sweeping and often strange statements. "I have saved you from harm, citizen. No expression of gratitude is required", "You are the criminal known as . If you surrender peacefully now, I will ensure that you will be well-treated during your period of incarceration" and the like are fairly common for him. Innovations Judah Von Zant is responsible for three of Skyline City's most remarkable technological innovations. The first of these is The Warp, which connects the citizens of Skyline City directly to law enforcement and medical personnel at the touch of a button. When the Warp was initially put in place nobody believed it would actually make a difference. But when a home invader kicked in a front door and charged into a home only to find half a dozen police officers aiming weapons at him street level crime plummeted until the point that it simply doesn't seem to exist in The Sky any longer. Of course there are still dealings in back alleys and bar basements but nobody in Skyline City ever has to worry about being mugged, having their business robbed, or their home broken into again. The second of Von Zant's greatest innovations and the one that made his initial fortune is the Diode System. This is a series of interconnected subway transits and overhead tracks, with train cars elevated on anti-gravity propulsion systems that allow them to cruise along, safely, at speeds of 500 MPH. The installment of the Diode System reduced travel times from an hour to a few minutes. Because the System is free and all residents of The Sky were issued boarding passes street traffic has all but vanished. In all of Paradigm City only in Skyline City can one drive, for those whom still like to do, along a freeway without worrying about getting caught in traffic congestion. Judah Von Zant doesn't like to claim credit for the Ambrosia-Link, which was the brainchild of his business partner Lucien Ambrose. But it can't be denied that the actual implementation of the system is entirely Von Zant. The AL is a massive international social media site based in Skyline City. It allows users from around the world to log on and have real-time video interface chats with their favorite superheroes and, sometimes, super villains. While the site is normally used for civilians to squeal over the ability to directly speak with a superhero, criminals use it as well. Super villains also have fan bases, and also like to use the site to brag about their latest exploits, reveal their plots to conquer the world, taunt superheroes, or share their recipes for coffee cake. Almost all of the members of Heroes Unlimited have accounts on the AL, and the younger members--such as Bubblegum, Chinchilla, and KK--spend a lot of time on it chatting away with their fans. Category:Overlords